Jacks complete first scrimmage

The nationally ranked South Dakota State football team continued its preparations for the 2013 season opener by conducting a scrimmage Saturday morning.

Following are comments by Jackrabbit coaches:

Head Coach John StiegelmeierOverall thoughts on the scrimmage:“I felt it was sloppy at times. I thought the effort was good and that should be the case. There’s just some things we need to be sharper on and we will be sharper – tackling, routes, checks, two-minute was ugly. So we just need to be better.”

Thoughts on fall camp through the first 10 days of practice:"I feel good about where we’re at; I just wish that it would have been a crisper scrimmage."

“We need to get some positions solidified. We need to slow down the game. We need to say here are the top six or whatever at the positions and let them practice. We’ve been rotating guys through to find out who it is and now we’ve got to make a decision mid-week and go with it – that’s our charge as coaches.”

Defensive Coordinator Clint Brown"Today, we saw what we needed to see. We needed to see better tackling and I thought we did that. We’re getting there; we had a lot less mental busts today than what we had earlier in the week."

"We’ve got to shore up our linebacker spots, our D-end spots and our safety spots right now. We feel that we’ve got four corners that are ready to play and we feel like we’ve got some other positions where guys are close, but they’ve got to put it over the top."

Offensive Coordinator Eric Eidsness"I think overall, it’s never as crisp as you want it, but I think it was pretty good. Execution-wise, I was really happy with the way Isaac (Rodriguez) and Reggie (Gandy) ran the ball and the job the guys did up front did that way. Pass protection, we still need to be a little better than what we were doing today."

"Overall, I think it was a good day – we got a lot of good reps in. I would say we feel good about where we’re at."

The Jackrabbits, ranked sixth in the Football Championship Subdivision media preseason poll conducted by The Sports Network and seventh in the preseason FCS Coaches Poll, open the 2013 campaign Aug. 31 by hosting Butler (Ind.). Kickoff is set for 6 p.m. at Coughlin-Alumni Stadium.